A Yerevan court has ordered the one-month pre-trial detention of Ambarcum Nersisyan, nephew of Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II, on charges of hooliganism and obstructing an election campaign, Armenia’s Investigative Committee reported on Monday.
The ruling, issued by Judge Arman Babakhanyan, also applies to the Catholicos’s brother Gevorg Nersisyan, who faces identical charges. Both men were detained following an incident in Vagharshapat, where local elections are scheduled for November 16.
According to the investigation, the Nersisyans allegedly interfered with campaign activities by Arutyun Mkrtchyan, a candidate for mayor from the opposition Republic Party. Mkrtchyan wrote on Facebook that on November 1, the cleric’s relatives disrupted his outreach event.
Defense attorney Ara Zograbyan rejected the accusations as politically motivated, saying video footage from the scene “proves the charges are baseless and relies on false testimony.”
The arrests mark an escalation in tensions between the Armenian Apostolic Church and government-aligned political forces amid an increasingly polarized pre-election atmosphere.
